Mang Shusheng's Ink Painting Practice

Chapter 111 It’s so smooth

The reason for choosing the Qian family is that the Qian family is the largest wealthy family in Fenglin County, and has many industries related to people's livelihood in Fenglin County.

If the Qian family is not dealt with, future actions in Fenglin County will probably be subject to many restrictions and constraints.

Originally, this kind of thing should be dealt with slowly, but Zhao Yifu felt that it should be resolved quickly, otherwise it would be difficult to take action later when they reacted.

In front of the Qian family's house, Zhao Yifu and his cat runners stood still, and then the man with a small mustache came forward and knocked on the door.

"Open the door quickly! The county magistrate is here to visit. Open the door quickly!"

The man with a small mustache shouted loudly, attracting the attention of everyone around him.

Li Liang couldn't speak. He felt extremely sad and angry as he watched the people around him pointing and talking.

Although there is a saying that "a strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake", there is also a saying that "a fierce dragon crosses the river".

Now Li Liang has some other ideas in his mind, but he can't express them out loud, so he needs to wait and see.

"Who's making the noise?"

The servant opened the door.

The man with the mustache immediately opened the door and said, "The county magistrate is here to visit. Why don't you invite your master out?"

When the servant saw so many people outside, he quickly shouted inside: "Quick, hurry up and call the master, something terrible has happened."

Zhao Yifu looked at it indifferently.

The little mustache guy behaved quite arrogantly, but actually he had to be arrogant at such times, to let people see that he was fearless and not easy to bully.

An old man walked out of the Qian family's inner house. He was wearing a plain blue robe that looked very simple, but if you look closely, you can find that the robe is made of the finest silk, which is light and breathable.

"This must be County Magistrate Zhao, right? I wonder why he has come to my Qian family in such a hurry upon his arrival?"

Mr. Qian is quite gentlemanly.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yifu clasped his fists curiously and asked, "Excuse me, elder, do you have any achievements?"

Mr. Qian laughed when he heard this and said, "My father passed the imperial examination in the second place in the first year of the Longxing reign. He is a humble man, but he only received the title of scholar a little over ten years ago."

Zhao Yifu heard this and asked again, "I wonder if the old scholar is still alive?"

Master Qian frowned slightly upon hearing this, then said, "My father unfortunately passed away four years ago... What's going on? Could it be that County Magistrate Zhao feels that with my father gone, he's forgotten?"

Zhao Yifu paused for a moment, then said, "Since the old scholar passed away four years ago, then the 200 mu of land should be included in the tax calculation starting from four years ago."

“That part isn’t recorded in the account.”

Zhao Yifu glanced at Li Liang and said with a smile, "It's a good thing that Li Zhubu reminded me, otherwise I would have made a mistake in the calculation."

Mr. Qian's expression changed and he asked, "What do you want?"

Zhao Yifu said, "It is only natural to collect the land tax."

"Li Zhubu said that your Qian family has owed taxes for many years, causing serious deficits in the county, so he came here this time to make up for the deficit."

Mr. Qian narrowed his eyes and looked at Li Liang, then sneered and said, "Zhao County Magistrate, you are just a mere county magistrate, don't make the mistake of doing this."

Zhao Yifu didn't say anything, but waved his hand and said, "Go inside and collect the taxes."

"Remember, the land tax owed by the Qian family is equivalent to 4 taels of silver. Don't take more."

The man with the mustache said with a grin, "Don't worry, sir. I understand."

But this expression makes people feel uneasy, and they always feel that he will not be honest.

"stop!"

Master Qian shouted.

But the man with the mustache wouldn't listen to him and squeezed in with his cat runners.

"Let's see who dares!"

Master Qian shouted loudly, and immediately servants squeezed out from behind the door and pushed all the cat-like runners aside.

Zhao Yifu looked at the cat-like yamen runners with clear and gentle eyes and felt quite helpless.

Cats are cats after all. How can their physical strength be compared with that of the terrifying Homo erectus?

Unless you're like Xiaohu...

Zhao Yifu has always wondered if Xiaohu was really a tiger spirit?

No, no, will the tiger spirit turn into a cat and act coquettishly in his arms?

However, the cat runners were not as strong as humans, and they quickly squeezed through the gap between the people with an agility that was not human, and spread out into the house to loot the property.

Mr. Qian was furious: "How disrespectful and outrageous!"

"There are women in the house, how can you be so offensive?"

Zhao Yifu said, "If you had any achievements, this would be disgraceful. But you don't have any achievements now."

Mr. Qian was stunned.

Zhao Yifu said, "You passed the imperial examination eleven years ago, but three years later you received a poor grade in the annual examination. Logically, you should have been stripped of your title."

"It's a pity that you're so disappointing. Five years ago, you still got a poor grade in the annual examination, so you were demoted to a Tongsheng."

"Am I right, Mr. Qian?"

As Zhao Yifu spoke, his eyes were filled with a sense of superiority.

Well, he felt it was amazing that he could actually use the mood of a top student to stare at a poor student.

This is so pleasant.

He chose to cause trouble for the Qian family because he saw that the Qian family was wealthy and he had also lost his most important amulet in the officialdom.

At this time, Li Liang looked at Zhao Yifu with some horror.

Mr. Qian’s files were indeed kept in the county government office, but even he, the chief clerk, didn’t know where those things were stored in such remote corners. How could Zhao Yifu have known about them?
He remembered how Zhao Yifu was slowly and methodically flipping through the files in the county government office, and he suddenly had a horrifying idea... Could it be that this man had memorized all the files of the county government office at that time?
Zhao Yifu seemed to know what he was thinking. He turned his head and smiled brightly, saying, "Isn't photographic memory the most basic thing?"

Li Liang felt that it was very unreal.

He had previously looked down on the man in front of him, thinking that he had only passed the imperial examination due to a special examination, which was completely different from him, who was a second-class candidate in the normal imperial examination.

But now he discovered that Zhao Yifu had a talent that could surpass all the scholars in the world: he had a photographic memory!
People with this kind of talent can shine at any time when they take the imperial examination.

After all, when it comes to thinking about solving a problem, people with a photographic memory have too many choices and angles.

At this moment, a loud shout came from inside the house: "You dog official, you rob people's homes like this, you will not die well!"

Then there was the sound of fighting.

Zhao Yifu raised his eyebrows, looked at Master Qian in confusion, and said, "That man has such a strong spirit, he must be a martial artist. Does your family also take in people from the underworld?"

He then chuckled and said, "During this sensitive period with the death of the county magistrate, these people from the underworld are quite suspicious."

"I think it would be better to take him back to the county government office for interrogation."

"No!"

Mr. Qian's face suddenly changed. After shouting, he realized something and quickly turned around and shouted into the house, "Where did you come from, brave man? Don't bother with the affairs of my house. Leave immediately."

has a problem……

Zhao Yifu suddenly noticed something.

He looked at Li Liang and muttered, "Could it be that what I said was right? This is the man who killed the previous county magistrate?"

Li Liang looked flustered and at a loss.

After Zhao Yifu confirmed his eyes, he became even more convinced.

He said, "Bring the man to me!"

As soon as the words fell, the cat-like yamen runners who rushed into the yard suddenly showed their claws...

Fortunately, there were not many people seeing it in the yard. If it happened in public, it would have been exposed.

"Who are you!"

There was a roar from inside, followed shortly by a scream. Zhao Yifu stood at the door without moving, and saw two cat-like yamen runners dragging a bloody man to the door.

They clasped their fists together and said, "Master, this man attacked us just now, and we have captured him."

Zhao Yifu looked down at the burly man and saw that his body was covered with fine scratches and there was almost no intact skin.

It's so miserable. Was it scratched by a cat's claws?

However, when this man was brought in front of Zhao Yi Fu, he suddenly jumped up, took out a dagger hidden in his arms and stabbed Zhao Yi Fu fiercely.

Zhao Yifu seemed to be frightened. He stood there without moving, staring blankly at the man stabbing him in the chest with a dagger.

however……

When the tip of the dagger pressed against Zhao Yifu's chest muscle above his heart, the attacker was stunned.

He raised his eyes and looked at Zhao Yifu, as if he was looking at something incredible.

Zhao Yifu had just opened his mouth in surprise, but now it changed into a 'hearty' smile.

He said, "The Qian family protected the gangsters who assassinated the imperial officials. Everyone saw this."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand, grasped the edge of the dagger, and pushed it forward little by little but very steadily.

He looked at the murderer and said, "I was originally planning to take it one step at a time, not knowing how to convict the Qian family... Thanks to you, things are going much more smoothly now."

Zhao Yifu was really happy. He didn't expect things to go so smoothly for him.

Originally, he just wanted to use the tax arrears issue to suppress the Qian family, and then either force the Qian family to make mistakes or tame them and make them completely loyal to him. These were all possible options.

But now, when he saw the man lying in front of him covered in blood, he knew that he had an opportunity to solve the problem in one go.

Although this person looks miserable, can his cat scratch someone to death?
He could clearly hear the man's steady breathing and strong heart beating.

There was no doubt that this person had faked an injury to come before him and assassinate him.

If the assassination succeeds, then it will be over, but if it fails...

Zhao Yifu broke the dagger open, then his other hand shot out like lightning and grabbed the murderer's shoulder.

The man tried hard to retract the dagger, but he found that Zhao Yifu was holding the dagger with two fingers and he couldn't move it at all.

At this time, you can only let go of one hand and block with the other hand.

but……

Zhao Yifu's claws pressed directly on his palm and still fell on the man's shoulder in an unstoppable manner.

Then the five fingers exerted force...

"Crack!"

With a crisp sound, the man fell to one knee on the ground with a scream.

One of his arms was folded upside down and covered his shoulder, while Zhao Yifu's claws pressed down on it forcefully, crushing his palm and shoulder together!

This is the strength brought by the absolute crushing of basic physical attributes.

To be honest, he even suspected that if he could fully develop the holy body of martial arts, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe himself as having the courage of a king, right?

Then he stretched out his foot and kicked the man's upright leg in the knee.

How is the 'Frosty Footsteps on the Sky' that he practiced so hard worse than the Crane Claw Technique?

So this kick was just right and actually dislocated the tibia of the leg.

The man was completely exhausted, and as soon as Zhao Yifu let go, he fell to the ground and rolled around in pain.

The remaining hand was neither enough to hold his own legs nor to press down on the other shoulder... In short, it was a miserable scene.

Zhao Yifu didn't waste any more time talking to Mr. Qian. He just pulled the man over, picked him up and threw him to the ground.

He looked at the two men and asked, "Why did you assassinate County Magistrate Huang?"

Mr. Qian immediately shouted, "Unjust, I don't know what you are talking about..."

Zhao Yifu said calmly, "Don't try to quibble. This murderer was captured from your house and even attempted to assassinate me. This is already a heinous crime."

"How you deal with it next depends on my mood."

Zhao Yifu glanced at the man indifferently and didn't want to communicate with him any further.

He is not a serious scholar, so he doesn't want to talk about theory in a very logical way.

As a man from a martial arts family, he felt that he could act according to his own wishes as long as he was in control of the overall situation.

As for Shangguan’s questioning?

Sorry, the county magistrate here just died.

But the governor cannot quench the immediate thirst with distant water, and he is the most important here.

From this, some things buried in his temperament began to emerge.

When there are many people pressureing him, he will consciously act like a filial and good child.

But now that no one is putting pressure on him, why should he still be so humble and polite?
Of course, his nature has not changed, but his methods of handling affairs have become more tough and extreme.

But at this time, Zhao Yifu finally felt that there were not enough people.

My cat runners are indeed obedient, but there are only a few of them, and now things have become a big deal...

Zhao Yifu subconsciously looked into the crowd and saw two familiar faces at a glance.

He pointed at the crowd and said, "Aren't you two the same ones taking care of your sick mother and your wife who is having a difficult childbirth?"

It was exactly the two yamen runners.

It was very embarrassing for the two of them to be caught red-handed.

However, Zhao Yifu didn't wait for them to explain and said, "Go and call back the rest of the people. I'll give you one last chance. If you don't come this time, you won't have to come again."

The two men's faces changed, especially since Zhao Yifu had just crushed a gangster's shoulder and broken his leg in front of them.

Such a vicious superior really didn't dare to be neglected at all, so he ran around to call for help.

Zhao Yi Fu finally breathed a sigh of relief. Twenty or so yamen runners were not a large number, but they could still raid the Qian family's house.

However, what surprised him was that before the yamen runners arrived, Wu Zhong arrived first.

"Uncle Wu, didn't you go back to clean up the house?"

Wu Zhong said with a strange expression, "The big girl is in charge of cleaning up the house, so it's fine. But Xiaohu is back, and he brought some of his clansmen with him. He said he was worried that you didn't have enough manpower, so he went back home to call them..."

Zhao Yifu looked at the sturdy man with a naive face, and then at the seven strong men following behind him.

I thought to myself, this is a sure thing.

If all these strong men were as fierce as Xiaohu, they would definitely be great helpers.

It had to be Xiaohu again. It turned out that he had gone back to his hometown to get help.

"Master, I'm back."

The little tiger called out in a silly way.

As the first "cat" to speak in front of Zhao Yifu, it seemed particularly close to Zhao Yifu.

Zhao Yifu nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay, okay. Now is the time to hire people. I'm very happy that you can come."

"Okay, now raid this house for me. Don't leave anything behind."

"And Uncle Wu, you're here just in time. I need you to interrogate these two men and find out how they killed the former County Magistrate Huang."

At this time, Zhao Yifu really had the feeling that "the time has come and heaven and earth are working together to support us."

Good things happened one after another, making many of his original plans useless.

Even with such a smooth situation, he felt something was amiss, and he began to become suspicious...

Well, he is just pretentious.

　I have a bad cough, but I feel pretty good after two days of rest.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)